1809
Year 1809 (MDCCCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). Events of 1809 January - March : Battle of Corunna.]] : Fulton patents steamboat.]] * January 5 - Treaty of the Dardanelles between Britain and the Ottoman Empire concluded. * January 10 - French Marshal Jean Lannes begins the Siege of Zaragoza. * January 16 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna. * February 3 - Illinois Territory was created. * February 8 - Franz I of Austria declares war on France, * February 11 - Robert Fulton patents the steamboat. * February 12 - Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born. * February 20 - A decision by the Supreme Court of the United States states that the power of the federal government is greater than any individual state. * February 20 - Siege of Zaragoza grinds to a halt as Jose Palafox surrenders. Over 60,000 had been killed on both sides in 41 days of street fighting. * February 25 - Spanish forces are defeated at the Battle of Valls in Catalonia by Marshal Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr. *March 1 - Embargo Act repealed, Non-Intercourse Act replaces it. * March 4 - James Madison succeeds Thomas Jefferson as the President of the United States. * March 13 - Military coup ousts Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden - he is confined in the Gripsholm Castle. * March 29 - At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a coup d'état and is later exiled. * March 29 - The First Battle of Porto ends in disaster as 18,000 Portuguese soldiers are drowned in a rout after defeat by the French under Marshal Soult and the Battle of Medellín results in massive Spanish casualties in Extremadura, when Marshal Victor's cavalry routs their army. April - June * April 9 - Tyroleans rise against French and Bavarian occupation, most notable militia lead by Andreas Hofer. * April 14 - Napoleon I defeats Austrians in the Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria * April 19 - Battle of Raszyn between armies of Austria (attackers) and Duchy of Warsaw (defenders) as a part of struggles of the Fifth Coalition (1809). The Austrian army was defeated. * April 22 - Battle of Eckmühl - French troops under Napoleon I and Marshal Davout defeat the Austrians under Archduke Charles. * May - Napoleon captures Vienna, is excommunicated, imprisons pope Pius VII. * May 5 - Mary Kies is the first American woman to be awarded a patent. * May 5 - The Swiss canton of Aargau denies Jews citizenship. * May 17 - Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire. When he announces Pope's secular power has ended, pope excommunicates him. * May 21 - Battle of Aspern-Essling: Austrian troops under Archduke Karl beat French under Napoleon in a hard fought battle. * May 24 - Dartmoor Prison opens, first to house French prisoners of war. * June 6 - Sweden promulgates a new Instrument of Government, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after authoritarian rule since 1772. * June 7 - Shoja Shah of Afghanistan signs a treaty with the British. Only weeks later, he is succeeded by Mahmud Shah. July - September /6: Battle of Wagram.]] * July 5-6 - The massive Battle of Wagram in which Napoleon defeats the Austrians. * July 6 - French troops arrest Pope Pius VII and take him to Liguria * July 10 - French Marshal Marmont engages in the inconclusive Battle of Znaim against the Austrians. * July 28 - Sir Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a French force at the Battle of Talavera. * July 30 - British invasion army lands in Walcheren. * August 8 - 70 disciples of Gaon of Vilnius arrive in Palestine. * August 10 - Ecuador declares independence from Spain. * August 11 - Severe earthquakes strike the Azores and sinks the village of São Miguel. * August 11 - A poorly-led Spanish army was defeated by King Joseph Bonaparte's French army at the Battle of Almonacid de Toledo. * September 17 - Peace of Hamina - Peace between Russia and Sweden in the Finnish War. The territory to become the Grand Duchy of Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn. * September 18 - A new theatre to hold the Royal Opera House opens in London to replace the first burnt down. in a fire in 1808. The price increases led to the Old Price Riots which lasted for 64 days. October - December * October 11 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand. * October 14 - Treaty of Schoenbrunn cedes Illyrian provinces to France. * November 19 - A Spanish army is ridden down and 20,000 are killed by French forces at the Battle of Ocana. * November 25 - Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat, mysteriously disappeared (possibly murdered) in Perleberg. * December 26 - British invasion force leaves Vlissingen * December 30 - Wearing masks at balls is forbidden in Boston. Undated * USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is recommissioned as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron. * Louis Poinsot describes the two remaining Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra. * Jean-Baptiste Lamarck publishes Philosophie Zoologique, outlining the concept of evolution. * First running of the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes horse race in England. * Miami University (Ohio) established by congressional order by George Washington. * Nicolas François Appert (1750-1841) develops a method to preserve food by means of canning. Ongoing events * Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) - Peninsular War/Finnish War/Fifth Coalition. * Russo-Turkish War. Births January - June * January 4 - Louis Braille, French teacher, inventor of braille (d. 1852) * January 15 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (d. 1864) * January 19 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d. 1849) * February 3 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847) * February 12 **Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865) **Charles Darwin, British naturalist (d. 1882) * February 15 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (d. 1884) * February 23 - William Sprague, American minister and politician from Michigan (d. 1868) * March 24 - Joseph Liouville, French mathematician (d. 1882) * March 31 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (d. 1852) * April 15 - Hermann Gunter Grassmann, Prussian mathematician (d. 1877) * June 4 **Columbus Delano, American statesman (d. 1896) **John Henry Pratt, English clergyman and mathematician (d. 1871) * June 8 - Richard Wigginton Thompson, American politician (d. 1900) * June 20 - Isaak August Dorner, German theologian (d. 1884) July - December * August 6 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet (d. 1892) * August 8 - Heinrich Abeken, German theologian (d. 1872) * August 27 - Hannibal Hamlin, American politician (d. 1891) * August 29 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, American physician and writer (d. 1894) * October 22 - Volney E. Howard, American politician (d. 1889) * September 27 - Raphael Semmes, Officer in the USN and the CSN (d.1877) * November 27 - Fanny Kemble, British-born American actress and writer (d. 1893) * December 24 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d. 1868) * December 29 - William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1898) : See also 1809 births. Deaths January - June *January 16 - John Moore, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1761) *February 25 - John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (Lord Dunmore) *March 7 - Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian composer (b. 1736) *March 11 - Hannah Cowley, English dramatist and poet (b. 1743) *March 25 - Anna Seward, English writer (b. 1747) *March 27 - Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (b. 1716) *May 13 - Beilby Porteus, English bishop and abolitionist (b. 1731) *May 17 - Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (b. 1722) *May 31 **Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b. 1732) **Jean Lannes, French marshal (mortally wounded in battle (b. 1769) July - September *July 6 - Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle, French cavalry general (killed in battle) (b. 1775) *June 4 - Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Danish painter (b. 1743) *June 8 - Thomas Paine, American revolutionary writer (b. 1737) *August 8 - Ueda Akinari, Japanese author and scholar (b. 1734) *August 18 - Matthew Boulton, English manufacturer and engineer (b. 1728) *October 8 - James Elphinston, Scottish philologist (b. 1721) *October 11 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (suicide) (b. 1774) *October 30 - William Cavendish-Bentinck, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1738) *November 9 - Paul Sandby, English cartographer and painter (b. 1725) : See also 1809 deaths.